Pork and Beef Gyoza

Yet another cooking post. What can I say, I´m feeling inspired. This time, it´s about gyoza.

Do you remember how, a while back, I bought a handy-dandy gyoza-maker (or shaper, rather)? I decided to test it out by making my family some gyoza.

Yes, this handy-dandy one. It´s a time-saver, no doubt about it.

I made mixed beef and pork gyoza, using a mix of these two (ground, of course) I bought at the supermarket. I also bought ready-made wafers. They´re not quite what you´re supposed to use for gyoza, but they work really well when you don´t have the time (or can´t be bothered to) make your own dough, roll and cut it out.

The wafers I used are supposed to be for making empanadillas (as seen above). 

I used the recipe found here, incorporating a few variations (I omitted the grated ginger, used olive oil since I had no sesame oil and substituted green onion for leek). It took longer than expected, since the cabbage took longer to boil than I thought. Darned cabbage. Who really likes cabbage anyway? Not me!

Next time, I´ll add more soy sauce and reduce the amount of cabbage a bit.  They were a bit too cabbage-y for my tastes, though they  still tasted great.

I used up all 16 wafers that were in the package, and approximately used about half of the mix that I cooked. Meaning that the gyoza on the recipe website are probably larger than mine (a possibility). I´d definitely still have had filling left over even if I had used 20 instead of 16.

I cooked 8 and 8 in my pan, seeing as how my biggest was being used by the filling.






My biggest fear when cooking the gyoza was having them burn. They are called "pot-stickers", but there´s a very fine line between sticking to the pot and toasting to them sticking to the pot and burning. As a note, I cooked mine on medium heat to toast them instead of high like the recipe suggests. Then I steamed them on low.

End result: Five gyoza per person, and the extra one (the small one) for my mom (cabbage doesn´t agree with her, but she wanted to try at least one). I served them with a side of pasta. Mine was smothered in cheese (of course) but my brother and father covered them in spicy chili sauce. Yes, plain pasta is untraditional, but hey, I was out of time. I got back home from work at 21:15, after all.

What do you think? Tasty-looking? Have you ever made this dish?

Clothes Frustration

I have just seen that one of the Baby JSKs that I had on my "want to buy" list is not just on the Closet Child website, but on sale.....it´s so incredibly tempting to go ahead and buy it!

Sadly, this month I have had to spend over 80 euros on books I need for teaching resources.....and I have a few birthdays coming up in late october-november-december (especially december...)...so I really need to watch my expenses.....I´m going to have to choose between buying 3 or 4 pairs of leggings or buying the JSK.....regular clothes vs. lolita clothes.....fall/winter clothes vs. one JSK I can´t really use until spring..... >_<

It´s so hard to choose, since I have no idea if that JSK is ever going to show up again.....but leggings would really be quite versatile with my wardrobe....I really don´t know what the dress code for work is (if there is any, really), but I have a limited amount of jeans/pants and my skirts, while not short, would not make me feel comfortable in front of a class...buying the leggings´d make it possible for me to wear skirts/shorts to teach class..... *grumble* Why are leggings so expensive? Even the plain ones....

Gosh darnit, I want to be irresponsible and buy the JSK, but I think that the "work clothes" are going to have to be the priority..... This month I am totally going to spend too much money on stuff  for my job....unfair! I want the job to give me money, not make me spend it.....ever since I got my hours halved (and therefore my salary halved) I´ve had to consider my expenses more than before.... *sigh*

Chicken Fajitas

The other day, I made chicken Fajitas. I used to not like them because I was hung up on the fact that there was so much pepper and onion in it. You know, there is. More than chicken, in fact.  However, ever since I went to live in Ireland for a few months, I began to actually like onions....strange, huh? I call it suvival instinct. I will never get over how expensive fruit is over there. Makes you try out other alternatives, like veggies.

So, thank yo Ireland, for teaching me to finally enjoy de deliciousness of chicken mixed with peppers and onion and taco/fajita spices! I love making them now. They´re actually so fast to cook and delicous too! Just put it in a tortilla and voilá! Dinner!! (or lunch!)

I prefer to make them with less red peppers, to tell you the truth (I like green and yellow peppers more than red, for some strange reason). It´s worth mixing in a bit of red pepper, though.....It´s so colorful!

So, what do you think? Do you like chicken fajitas? Or do you prefer beef ones?

AATP cardigan love

It´s called the "Rose cardigan". It´s available in 4 different colors: off-white, red, navy and black. Though I usually lean towards blues, in this case I´m totally for the white and the black versions. The rose design simply isn´t noticeable in the red and blue versions.

 See? Where´s the rose in the blue cardi?













 I am so in love with it. If the BTSSB and AATP stand last weekend  had just had this cardigan instead of the Joker one, I would have bought it without any hesitation. Just totally forked over the cash, no questions asked. Then I´d have run over to the IW website and asked for the Rose Sained Glass print.